


Feel The Fear (And Swallow Back The Tears)

by Who_the_hell_is_Tre_Cool



Category: Set It Off (Band)
Genre: Ghost Hunting, M/M, Mentions of Death, YouTubers - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-25
Updated: 2019-04-25
Packaged: 2020-01-31 20:50:18
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,344
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18599170
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Who_the_hell_is_Tre_Cool/pseuds/Who_the_hell_is_Tre_Cool
Summary: They didn't find ghosts, but they found so much more.





	Feel The Fear (And Swallow Back The Tears)

**Author's Note:**

> I had this idea on the bus this morning and had to get it out before I could do anything else.

“Hey what is up everybody, Cody here-“

“And Maxx!”

Cody laughed, “Yeah Maxx is here too. Dude, you just ruined my opening.”

You see, Cody was a fairly well known YouTuber, most known for his paranormal investigation videos. The funny part was, he didn’t believe in ghosts or demons, so if something genuinely creepy did happen, the audience knew it was for real.

“Okay, I’m gonna start again. I’ll fix this up in editing, you just hold the camera,” He directed Maxx, his friend. Maxx was a strong believer in all things supernatural, and as much as Cody made fun of him, it was pretty cool how much research he’d done, and how he’d blurt out random facts.

“Hey, what is up everybody, Cody here, and today I’ve got a special surprise for you all! Maxx is here to join me on our ghost hunting adventure today. Maxx, say hi.”

Maxx laughed, turning the camera around, “Hi, if you follow Cody on Instagram you’ve probably seen me on his story. If not, hi, I’m Maxx,” he then turned the camera back to Cody.

“Alright, today we’re gonna be investigating this old manor house. The owner of the house, Mrs Michaels, has been trying to sell it on for about thirty five years now, but no one wants to buy it. Some people have even gone as far as to say ‘Do not buy this house, something evil lives there.’ So I got in contact with Mrs Michaels to get permission to film, and maybe get to the bottom of the so called ‘evil’ that lives here. And I brought Maxx along because even if there’s nothing evil, it’s still an old house, kinda falling apart a little, and I don’t want to fall through a rotten floorboard and never be seen again.”

“He’s a smart cookie,” Maxx said, from behind the camera, and Cody rolled his eyes but smiled a little.

“Yeah, Thanks Maxx. Okay, camera set up. As usual, we’ll have this main camera, which either me or Maxx will have, and this will be filming the whole time. As well as that, I have a go pro,” He patted his collar, “securely fixed here, filming in night vision, just in case anything happens to the camera,” Cody looked up at the sky, “Looks like the sun’s just beginning to set, so we should probably head inside. It’s gonna take an hour just to walk up the drive,” Cody joked, and Maxx spun the camera to show the fairly long, gravel, driveway that they had to walk up.

The driveway trek didn’t take as long as they expected, and soon they were at the doors of the manor. Huge wooden doors with stained glass, and a large, old lock. Cody pulled out the key he’d gotten from Mrs Michaels, and unlocked them, having to shove them open as the old hinges were slightly rusted.

The door opened with a loud creak, and Cody pushed it shut once they were inside, resulting in another loud creak. Maxx looked a mix between terrified and excited, so Cody shot him a reassuring smile.

“Maxx, camera on me. I have some more talking stuff to do.”

Maxx nodded, and moved the camera.

Cody swung his backpack off his shoulder, “Okay, just our luck, there’s no electricity here at the moment. But, I’ve got three powerful flashlights,” He handed one over to Maxx, “Spare batteries, and we both have our phones just in case. Even if there’s no signal, we can still use the flashlights on them.

Now, according to the floor plan, there’s this floor, a second floor above, and then an attic. Off the side of the dining room, which is on this floor, there’s a kitchen that is a little lower than the rest of this floor, just because of the door to the gardens and stuff, but there’s no basement, which crosses one go-to creepy room off the list.”

“I say we start at the attic and work our way down,” Maxx spoke up, and Cody nodded.

“Let’s see what awaits us in the attic!” He declared, causing Maxx to snigger, before they climbed the staircase.

Access to the attic was via what could only be seen as a storage room. Boxes upon boxes piled up, including a few wooden crates. The floorboards were bare, and the walls were damp-stained beige. In the corner of the room was a ladder, leading to a hatch. Cody carefully shifted a couple of boxes, and put a foot on the bottom rung of the ladder, testing its strength. It didn’t crumble immediately, so he climbed up, carefully pushing open the hatch.

A cloud of dust was disturbed, sending both boys coughing, but Cody carried on, shining the flashlight beam into the attic.

Gaps between the ceiling beams were mostly filled with insulation, but someone had placed some planks of wood between a couple to provide a safe perch. Cody settled himself on a plank, before taking the camera off of Maxx and allowing the younger to join him.

Maxx was first to break the silence.

“Kinda disappointing, if I’m honest,” He said, edging his way across a beam and making Cody nervous.

Instead of voicing his nerves, he said, “If you fall through the ceiling, Mrs Michaels is gonna be mad at us.”

Maxx just shrugged, “So? I thought we were ghost hunting, not choking to death on dust.”

Cody rolled his eyes, “There’s a reason nothing’s up here.”

“Oh, care to enlighten us?” Maxx shuffled back over, holding the camera up.

“Okay, see those marks over there?” Cody pointed to another set off boards in the corner. These were covered in dust, except for a square outline, and there were some marks from something being dragged. “Someone’s been here recently and cleared everything out. Michaels said no one’s been up here in a while, but if it had been that long then the dust would’ve settled again.”

A look of realisation came across Maxx’s face.

“So someone’s been here recently, without Michaels knowing?”

“Either that or she lied to us. But we’ll see.”

Maxx nodded, handing the camera back to Cody and climbing back down the ladder, Cody following.

“Okay, where to next?” Maxx asked, pushing his hair out his face.

“Next floor, we’ll just work our way down, although I doubt we’ll find anything at all. People are just creeped out by an old house, and would rather make up ghosts than admit that they’re scared.”

When he looked over, Maxx was scowling at him.

“What?”

“Why so cynical all of a sudden?”

“Maxx, have you never watched any of my videos? I’m always like this. I like to tell people the truth, that’s all.”

Instead of answering, Maxx turned and left the room, calling, “C’mon, we’ve still got loads to check out.” 

Cody shook his head and followed.

The rest of the upstairs rooms turned out much like the attic. Dusty and abandoned, had been for decades, nothing but spiders and beetles living in them.

Downstairs and still much the same.

Maxx was unsettled by the portraits that hung in the main hall, so they left there quickly. The hallways were creepy, but most normal hallways are in the dark, and they weren’t able to enter the ballroom because the roof had collapsed a few years ago.

They walked down another hallway, this one slim and uncarpeted, most likely a servants passage.

“Maxx, camera.”

Maxx looked exhausted, and they had been there most the night, so it was probably time to start wrapping up.

“Alright, we’ve been through all the rooms we can, and nothing seems out of the ordinary. It’s just an old creepy house, and we all know people love to spin stories about old creepy houses,” Cody walked forwards slowly as he spoke, and Maxx dutifully stepped back. “Now, we need to get some sleep, so we’ll be wrapping up now-“

“Shit!”

Cody stood, stunned and the camera fell to the floor.

“Maxx?” He made his way forwards carefully, noting the rotting floorboards.

“I’m fine!” Came Maxx’s reply, and Cody shone his flashlight down the hole that had claimed his friend. “I’m fine,” Maxx repeated, although he sounded breathless, “I think I’ve hurt my wrist, I landed on it awkwardly.”

“You gonna be okay?” Cody asked, seeing if he could spot Maxx with the flashlight, but it didn’t seem to be lighting up much.

“Yeah, I’ll be fine. But, uh-“

“What?”

There was silence for a second, and then,

“I thought you said this place didn’t have a basement?”

“Maxx, what can you see from where you are?” Cody asked, voice filled with apprehension. He checked the camera was still recording.

“A whole lotta nothing. I dropped my flashlight, and lost my phone.”

Cody felt a worried frown settle on his features, “Is my flashlight not lighting anything?”

“Nope!” Maxx popped the ‘p’ sound, and the tone of his voice told Cody that he was trying to hide how terrified he was.

Chewing his lip, Cody pulled out his phone, turning the flashlight on there and setting it down beside him.

“I’m gonna drop my flashlight down for you, try and catch it, though it should survive the fall. I’ve got my phone light.”

“Okay,” Maxx agreed, and Cody carefully dropped the flashlight down, before picking up the camera and aiming at the light, where he could vaguely see Maxx.

“Can you see an exit at all?”

Cody watched the beam swing in a slow circle, and then Maxx let out a yell of surprise, and the torch clattered to the ground.

“Cody Cody we need to get out, like, right now-” Maxx spoke quickly, panic clear in his voice, and Cody had never heard him sound so terrified.

“Why, what’s wrong?”

He heard a shuffled, and the flashlight beam was moved again, picked up from the floor and spun frantically.

“There’s- There’s skulls- and bones- and-” Maxx gasped, “Cody- Cody there’s bodies- actual real life dead bodies oh my god-” Maxx sounded like he was about to either faint or cry.

“It’s okay, calm down, we just need to find the entrance. Can you see a door anywhere?”

Some scuffling, and then a groan.

“Maxx, what’s wrong?”

“T-The doors blocked-” Maxx cried out, and Cody’s heart ached.

“By what?”

The response was quiet, and Cody almost missed it.

“The bodies. Which means- which means they were alive when they entered this room-”

Despite the feeling in his stomach of not wanting to scare Maxx even more, he knew what he needed him to do.

“I’m sorry Maxx, but you have to pull the door anyway-” He winced at Maxx’s cry.”I know, but they’re already dead. Don’t touch them, but if you can force the door open enough to get out, then we can call the police.”

He heard Maxx mumbling to himself, seemingly preparing himself, and then there was the sound of shuffling, and a few noises of effort.

“Okay, the door’s open,” Maxx’s voice sounded dull.

“Now just follow the stairs, see where they come up.”

Quiet footsteps soon faded into nothingness, and Cody took a moment to breathe and collect himself. At first, he’d been concerned that Maxx was pranking him, but the genuine panic in his tone told otherwise.

From somewhere close by, a hoarse voice called out, “Cody!”

And Cody started running towards it.

Maxx was sat on the floor beside a curtain in one of the hallways. He looked pale, with red rimmed eyes and tears streaming down his face. Cody didn’t point it out, just offered him a hand and pulled him into a tight hug, pulling away when Maxx winced in pain.

“I’m glad you’re okay,” He said softly, looking at him, and Maxx just nodded, once.

“I’m gonna take the camera, and I have my little camera, and I’m gonna stand in the doorway and film a slow circle off the room, okay? You stay out here.”

Cody slowly walked down the narrow passage, down the steps that lead to the basement. This was the only part of the whole house that was untouched by dust. He forced open the door and nearly vomited at the site.

Just as Maxx had described, bodies were piled against the door, having clearly died trying to escape. The rest of the room featured piles of bone kicked to the side, and other corpses in various states of decay. Cody filmed a quick circle for evidence, before hastily leaving.

Maxx was exactly where Cody had left him, leaning against the wall and cradling his hand to his chest.

“We’ll take this to the police in the morning. Let’s go get your wrist checked out and then head home.”

Cody finally turned the camera off and stowed it in his bag, before grabbing Maxx’s non-injured hand and leading him out. Maxx clung to him tightly, so Cody didn’t have to feel awkward about the hand holding. They were both equally as shaken up.

The drive to the hospital was spent in silence, and the walk to the building was the same.

Being inside, surrounded by bright lights and people, felt safe on an unexplainable level.

Cody let Maxx talk to the receptionist by himself, and all too soon they were back in the car on their way home, Maxx’s broken wrist in a cast.

They went back to Cody’s place, originally planning on one of them taking the couch, but when Maxx woke up screaming they both moved to Cody’s bed.

The next morning, Cody took both of the cameras and he and Maxx went to the police.

The bodies in the basement were the final puzzle piece needed, and apparently the pair had helped solve a serial killer’s case.

The killer had been arrested a few years ago, but had never admitted to where the bodies were hidden, and now they knew.

Cody and Maxx returned to Cody’s place, and went back to bed.

And if they were cuddling, well, the cameras weren’t on anymore.

**Author's Note:**

> I feel like the ending was rushed but I was beginning to lose motivation.
> 
> Comments, as always, greatly appreciated.


End file.
